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Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. By @JacobDeFig

By Jacob de Figueiredo

 

Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.

A lot of great advertising is the ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Painting a picture about our product that’s so unbelievably stunning, people just gotta take a look.

I did a lil bit of digging and uncovered some interesting history behind some seemingly standard products.

INSTANT NOODLES.

After WW2 Japan hit a serious food crisis which plagued the nation. So the United States, being the generous bastards they are, supplied Japan with bread flour and encouraged the nation to start learning how to make their own bread. How sweet. But one man named Momofoku Hondo didn’t understand why his people would have to start learning to make bread, when they could already make noodles, which had been a staple of Japanese culture for decades. So he decided to take the matters into his OWN hands. He wanted to be able to feed the nation Ramen, but in a way which was made to last and could be easily transported around the country. He spent years formulating a recipe, which had to be tasty and robust whilst still keeping the unique texture that the Japanese public are used to when eating noodles. It wasn’t until his wife accidently flash fried some noodles in tempura oil that he realized this was the answer. Flash frying the noodles dehydrated them and left small perforations, which allowed the noodles to be quickly cooked in hot water.

He later went on to package these as instant ramen noodles in the 1950s and would go on to sell 40 billion packets each year. Mental.

Some food for thought next time you hit rock bottom after a week of instant noodles and red bulls, wondering how it all went wrong so quickly. You’re eating a lil piece of Japanese history.

SILLY STRING MORE LIKE SERIOUS STRING.

Silly string was invented by mistake, originally it was menna heal your broken bones.

Leonard A Fish and Robert P Cox set out to create a new version of a cast for broken bones. Not just any cast mind you, a cast that could be sprayed onto someone out of an aerosol can. Or as they called it, “A foamable, resinous, composition.”  And this thing actually worked! The only issue they had was finding the correct nozzle to spray the substance with. Leonard stumbled across one which sprayed the substance yes, but sprayed it 30 feet across a room. So they decided to turn their product into a toy. Smart move. They reworked the formulae to make it less sticky and booked a meeting with Toy Company ‘Wham O’. Upon arrival at this meeting, the two guys immediately sprayed their product all over the secretary and the entire office, expecting minds to be blown and their fantastic new toy. Absolute legend movements.  Unsurprisingly, they were asked to leave immediately. Wham O bosses found some of the silly sting residue on a lamp, which hadn’t been cleaned and immediately asked the two guys to send 25 samples in for marketing. Wham O went on to license the product now known as, ‘Silly String’. Preeeettttyy cooooool.

CRISPS… oh yah.

When chips made their way to America (French fires I guess.) they quickly became a staple for most American dinners. Surprisingly, make then they were considered food for the upper class.

In 1853 George Crum was a chef at the Moons Lake House, in New York. Their signature dish was Moon’s Lake Potatoes. Or as the well to do would say, Potatoes served at Moon’s Lake Manor. Cornelius Vanderbilt himself was believed to have ordered chips one sunny afternoon. Once they were served, Cornelius ate them all but told George Crum they were soggy AF and unappealing. Crum served him another batch, which he again deemed unfit. This went on and on and on and on until Crum eventually lost it and decided to cut the Potatoes razor thin and throw them all into the fryer in a fit of rage. He served these to Cornelius knowing full well that he wouldn’t be able to eat them with a knife and fork. Which was genius as eating with your hands was a serious no no back in those days. Anyway, Cornelius tried the paper thin fried potatoes and instantly loved them. Thus Saratoga Chips was born, becoming an instant hit and taking America by storm.

Amazing right? Right? Please say yes. 

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